Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds | Smartphones

Children are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration, research revealed.

They react to increasing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and their use of smartphones rather than counting on parents to apply the limits, according to experts.

The number of 12 to 15 years which take breaks of smartphones, computers and iPads have increased by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the GWI audience research company, based on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents in 18 countries.

Professor Sonia Livingstone, Director of Digital Futures for Children Center of the LSE, said that these results had been taken up in research published soon, which revealed that children and young people try various options to manage how their online life affects their well-being, in particular by taking a break in social media, by distracting themselves online, looking for more positive experiences case, leaving Altogér social media.

Livingstone said: “Children have the message – their parents, the media, their own experiences – that too many social media are not always good for them.

“They therefore experience different ways to protect their well-being, without wanting to completely abandon social media. I am sure they are talking about what works for them and the way to come.”

Daisy Greenwell, the co-founder of childhood without a smartphone, said that she was talking more and more to young people who “questioned the idea that growing online is inevitable”.

She said: “We regularly hear adolescents who are exhausted by the pressure of the connection permanently and who choose to step back for their own mental health.

“Many of them wake up that these platforms are not neutral. They are designed to manipulate attention … They realize that their time, their concentration and their self -esteem are monetized by some of the largest companies in the world. Taking a break has become an act of rebellion. ”

This is reflected in the research ofcom. A 2024 report revealed that A third (33%) of eight to 17 years who are online think that their screen time is too high, while another has found that 47% of young people aged 16 to 24 who use social media deactivating notifications and used the mode “Do not disturb”, an increase of 40% in 2023, and compared to 28% of older users.

Thirty-four percent of young people were more likely to take a deliberate break with social media (against 23% who said they would not), 29% would remove applications because they spent too much time (compared to 19% that would not), and 24% would remove applications for their mental health (against 13% that would not).

David Ellis, professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Bath, noted that adolescents may have discovered the characteristics that allow people to control their time on social networks and smartphones faster than their parents-although the evidence that these characteristics change long-term behavior have been mixed, he said.

Ellis said: “If someone wants to spend less time sitting in front of a screen and increasing his level of physical activity, most people would probably consider this as a net positive. On the other hand, this time could be replaced by something else less beneficial.”

Young people aged 18 to 25 who spoke to the Guardian previously said they thought that “the generation of their parents had no idea” and had given them too much access to too young smartphones, while many said they would restrict access to their own children until the end of their adolescence.

A recent survey revealed that almost half of young people would prefer to live in a world where the Internet did not exist and that a similar proportion would support a digital curfew, while more than three-quarters felt worse after their use of social media.

GWI research also revealed that dependence on social media was classified among the three main fears of parents for their children from a list that included climate change, war and the cost of housing, while 8% said they had become more difficult about screen time limits after looking at the Hit Netflix show adolescence on the dangers of online misogyny.